Focus Features

Moms, be warned. Your kids have new ammunition for their video game obsessions. According to an article in New Scientist, video games may actually improve eyesight. Alison Motluck reports, “Six years ago Daphne Bavelier at the University of Rochester, New York, exploded the myth that gaming is bad for your eyes by showing that expert gamers outperform non-gamers at a variety of visual tasks. Now she has demonstrated that playing action-packed video games improves a person's ability to perceive contrast, a skill we rely on in dark conditions.”  Indeed not only does it help, but it may very well be used, according to Lotfi Merabet, a neuroscientist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, as a common clinical tool. Add this to another study that demonstrated that playing video games without the sound could reduce stress and one could argue your PS3 is as good as a gym.

Moms, be warned. Your kids have new ammunition for their video game obsessions. According to an article in New Scientist, video games may actually improve eyesight. Alison Motluck reports, “Six years ago Daphne Bavelier at the University of Rochester, New York, exploded the myth that gaming is bad for your eyes by showing that expert gamers outperform non-gamers at a variety of visual tasks. Now she has demonstrated that playing action-packed video games improves a person's ability to perceive contrast, a skill we rely on in dark conditions.”  Indeed not only does it help, but it may very well be used, according to Lotfi Merabet, a neuroscientist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, as a common clinical tool. Add this to another study that demonstrated that playing video games without the sound could reduce stress and one could argue your PS3 is as good as a gym.